David Reece had carved out a solid career as an in-demand vocalist, recruited by a plethora of top European touring and recording hard rock acts to bring his uniquely powerful and melodic voice, his experience and knowledge of the music industry and his compelling stage presence to their lineups.
For the most part, save a stint as Udo Dirkschneider’s immediate successor in Accept throughout 1988 and 1989, Reece has been a hired gun – valued for his talent and professionalism, but often not allowed the sort of creative freedom as a writer that every artists hopes to achieve at some point in their careers.
Alongside friend and one-time bandmate Frank Pané, he has chosen to focus on creating the kind of music he’s always wanted to make with the formation of the new classic-rock inspired band, Sainted Sinners. The group’s self-titled debut album was released on Feb. 24 worldwide through El Puerto Records Gbr, and features a sound that is reminiscent of legendary hard rock bands known not only for superior song craft but also excellent musicianship.
“I want everybody to know, anyone who has followed my career, that everything I have done of the last few years has been treated as a project. I did two albums with Tango Down, and one with Gypsy Rose, I did three albums with Bonfire [including a side project of the band called EZ Livin’]. As well as a couple of solo albums. But Sainted Sinners is David Reece whole heartedly engaged, and it’s a real band. I do have a couple of solo albums in the can. One is really heavy and the other is like what we’re doing in Sainted Sinners and it might become part of the next Sainted Sinners album. I just want to make that clear to my fans that I am not jumping around as a gun-for-hire vocalist. I refuse to do that anymore,” said Reece, who now lives in Italy with his new girlfriend, after previously living in Montana.
Reece was born and raised in Oklahoma before moving to Minnesota where he began his foray into the music business. He did some recording with a band called Sacred Child before auditioning and eventually landing the gig in Accept, where he recorded one album with the band, 1989s Eat the Heart. The band went on hiatus and Reece then formed his own outfit called Bangalore Choir, and also recorded with Sircle of Silence and Stream throughout the 1990s.
When Bonfire was going through yet another of its many lineup changes, including the departure of long-time vocalist Claus Lessman, band founder Hans Ziller pulled together a group of musicians to record an album under the EZ Livin’ banner called Firestorm in 2014. That lineup would then go on to reform Bonfire in 2015 with the addition of Pané as a second guitarist. But it was a tumultuous time for Reece, who didn’t care for the manner by which Ziller ran the band and they mutually decided to part ways in 2016.
The experience with Bonfire working for the gifted and prolific but mercurial Ziller proved to be the straw the broke the proverbial camel’s back for Reece in terms of being an employee. While he chose to leave the band after a show in Italy in the summer of 2016, Pané remained in the band, but reached out to Reece not long after his departure. That initial phone call led directly to Sainted Sinners.
“Frank called me to say that he didn’t like how things had ended and the way that Hans did it. He asked if he could come visit because his wife was working in the south of Italy and if he could bring his kids, because he knows I love his kids. I said yes and that he should come and we could have a good time and keep our friendship intact. At the time I didn’t know that he had a bigger plan in mind because he had just left another band he was in called Purpendicular. So he came to my house and we buried the hatchet about a few things and he said he wanted to play me some songs. He first played me what would end up becoming Truth Is A Lie which is on the album. I heard it and I wrote the lyrics in about 10 minutes and we recorded it on his iPad. And the whole thing just jumped off from there,” Reece said.
“It’s so easy to write lyrics and melodies with him. He is a great song crafter, so that’s how Sainted Sinners began. He said I was one of his favourite singers and that he still wanted to work with me. Being that he was still in Bonfire I worried that it might be a conflict for him and cause problems but he said it wasn’t because he was just a hired gun like I was.”
Pané, who turns 30 this year, had been playing in both original and cover bands throughout central Europe since he was a teenager and is considered to be a rising star on the axe-slinger scene. Reece was impressed with not only his talent, but also his influences and his personality from the moment he first met him when Pané joined Bonfire in 2015.
“I hadn’t heard of him when he joined the band just before Bonfire did the Glorious album. So I went to rehearsal and there was this kid with a great Laney backline, because they endorsed him. He was a great looking kid with a great looking wife and children and he starts playing and he was just amazing. Once I learned more about him I realized how well respected he was. Purpendicular was essentially a Deep Purple tribute act but they also did original music too. The thing is, Purple’s drummer Ian Paice is the drummer for the group when Deep Purple takes a break. And when you work with a guy like Ian Paice you have to be pretty damn good. Ian speaks of Frank like he’s the new hot dog on the scene, and this is from a guy whose played with Ritchie Blackmore and Steve Morse,” Reece said.
“But as much as he is a phenomenal guitar player, he is a great guy and a very calm human being, which is great because I hate drama and I hate liars. He lives for music and his guitar. And another thing about Frank is that, and a lot of North Americans may not realize this, but most Germans don’t ‘get’ the blues like the Canadians or the Americans do because we kind of grew up with that natural feel and it’s an ingrained part of our rock and roll.
“In Bonfire he was playing some covers and the Bonfire material, but I didn’t get to hear Frank play from his heart or really know where he came from as a musician other than being a fan of Ritchie Blackmore. But as I walked through his house for the first time there were all these posters of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rory Gallagher, Jimi Hendrix and Michael Schenker. I asked him where that came from and he said that’s what he listened to as a little boy. Frank is classically trained like a lot of European guitar players but he said it bored him to death. He had mastered it, but preferred to listen to Rory Gallagher. We love what each other brings to the band as musicians and I know that I have a voice that works well with him. So for him to reach out and say that he wants me as the singer for his music is an honour. And what we achieved on this first Sainted Sinners album is the proof in the pudding.”
The band also features well-respected veteran keyboardist Ferdy Doernberg, who also plays with Axel Rudi Pell, with the rhythm section comprised of bassist Malte Frederik Burkert and Hungarian drumming sensation Berci Hirleman – both of whom left Purpendicular at the same time as Pané.
“Frank knew Ferdy a lot better than I did. I met him at a bunch of festivals that Axel was also on, but we weren’t really friends. Frank always said that if were ever to do something new, Ferdy would be the guy he would call. Malte and Berci followed Frank out of Purpendicular. They basically said if there’s no Frank in the band, they weren’t staying either. So that’s cool to have them both come in together because the rhythm section is so important in a rock band. You have to have a drummer that takes the sledgehammer and can pound nails but who also has the feel. Berci’s got both of those in spades. And Malte is just a monster on bass, and he also looks so good on stage, like a real rock star,” said Reece, adding that besides being excellent musicians who gel in the studio and onstage, Sainted Sinners is comprised of five guys who get along well together.
“You’ve probably heard this a million times and this is no bullshit, but I like to have guys in my band that I enjoy just sitting around a room with, not just in rehearsal. I’ve got to feel like I can be comfortable in my own skin around them, and vice versa. I don’t want to have people in the band where I don’t even want to look at them and don’t want to talk to them. I want to spend time with everybody in the band. And Frank was really good when he helped bring us all together. He just knew we were all a good fit with one another.”
The songs on Sainted Sinners are equal parts Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, UFO and Van Halen but with a deep sense of melody, incendiary playing and lyrics that often explore the dual nature of humanity – how we all are capable of great good, but also great evil, how sometimes the two forces are at war within the hearts, minds and spirits of every individual.
“For the most part, the lyrics are a reflection of what I am thinking day to day. Rock and roll is a full contact sport and it’s getting harder and harder and so is life in general. The title track for the album, We’re All Sainted Sinners, and the name of the band, was my idea for an anthem that represented our music and our message to the world. I have to tell you, for me the darker side is the first response as to how I deal with many situations. That’s what so many people do and that’s why the world is so f***ed up. I fight with that desire to follow the darker thoughts and feelings as a human being every day, to be honest. And I think that I get out those frustrations and negative emotions on record instead of real life,” Reece said, saying that the stressful experience of playing in Bonfire wore him down more than he expected or realized.
“All the bullshit that I endured working in that environment was so mentally straining. Most guys would cut their balls off to be in a band where you’re driven to the airport and are flying out to big European festivals all the time. But it got to the point where at times I wanted to call in sick. I didn’t because I knew I had the other guys like Frank counting on me. So the song Truth is A Lie is reflective of that and other experiences I have had in this business. Some people lie so much they think it’s their truth but you know it’s a lie. And in life in general it applies to a lot of people,” he said, as he talked about influences for some of the other songs on the album.
“Blue Lightning Man is a western thing that I wrote because I am into guns and enjoy old western movies, especially the Clint Eastwood ones. Shine Diamond Girl I wrote because I am a parent. I have daughters and I have a grand-daughter. I love them all and I want them to be successful in this evil world and to know that they have power and can do what they choose. Beauty In The Beast follows the theme of the album where I am saying that there’s beauty in everything that most people see as ugly. These songs are a reflection of who I am as a writer and I tapped into these great lyrical themes because Frank laid it out musically so well. Most of these titles and ideas just popped in my head as I was hearing his ideas.
“When it comes to lyrics, I am adamantly opposed to the ‘whoa, whoa, baby, baby, let’s party all night’ lyrics. Number one, I am 56 years old. I partied harder than most people. Back in the 1980s I was a junkie and I spilled more dope on the floor than most people actually did. And to see a guy my age singing about 20-year-old chicks is kind of embarrassing and a little creepy.”
Sainted Sinners has a number of European dates set to mark the release of the album. Later in the year, Reece said the band will be touring North America, the extent of the tour to be determined by the amount of interest from bookers and promoters across the pond. He was insistent that there would definitely be a handful of Canadian dates, most likely in Ontario and Quebec in the late spring or early summer.
For more information on Sainted Sinners and the debut album, as well as any upcoming tour dates, visit https://www.facebook.com/SaintedSinners/ or www.el-puerto-records.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
